Laura Schoenfeld: The short answer is no, and that’s simply because I can’t order the level of testing that Chris and other doctors are able to. I also have somewhat of a different approach as far as working with people’s concerns. I don’t even work like a typical dietitian is going to work. I’m very much involved with people as far as, like I said, mindset, psychological barriers, helping them overcome negative body image and a lot of that kind of stuff that goes to a deeper level than just physically what are they eating. I really like to focus on making sure that people are not overly restrictive because of the ways that I’ve seen it kind of go south. Say, they have an autoimmune disease, and they’re so strict in their autoimmune disease that they’re undereating and they’re panicking about food, and that in itself is causing symptoms. It’s just kind of evolved over time to the point where I just feel like that’s where my strengths are.
I think everyone’s going to have a different structure to their practice. Chris’ recommendations are great, and obviously they’ve worked very well for him and his facility, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow it to a T. If you feel like there’s something that you really specialize in and it doesn’t necessarily involve testing or supplement protocols, then you should feel free to just focus on what you feel passionate about. There are plenty of people that go very, very deep into a niche and maybe they just do IBS low-FODMAP diets and they do, maybe, SIBO testing, but they don’t necessarily do a whole spectrum of all these different conditions. Chris is definitely a unique case, where he treats so many different conditions it’s almost crazy that he can do that. Most people, if they’re going to succeed in business and in a practice, really need to pick at least one if not maybe two or three major topics that you like to focus on and really get into that and not feel like you have to be a Chris Kresser that’s dealing with 8,000 different types of patients and able to run all the different testing and able to do all the different diagnosing.
I know there are a lot of different types of practitioners in this program, and again, knowing your scope of practice is really important because, like I said, as an RD, I can’t order a SIBO test, so doing a SIBO test and diagnosis and protocol as a dietitian is not really in my scope of practice. Could I do that? Probably I could find a workaround to do it, and yeah, I’ve had some clients that couldn’t find anyone else to work with and I’ve helped them do protocols to make sure that they’re getting the treatment that they need, but like I said, if it’s not in your scope to do some of the stuff that Chris does or that Amy does, then you need to figure out what your focus is. You need to figure out what are you good at. Is doing heavy metals testing even something that you are interested in doing? Or do you really just want to focus on the diet and supplement stuff? Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff that can be done with diet and lifestyle. I’ve had some clients tell me that the work that we did together was the best money they spent because they got so much of a more holistic approach as opposed to, like, having a million tests done and supplements thrown at them. I’m not saying that’s what Chris does, but there are a lot of practitioners that I’ve seen out there that they really focus so much on the testing and supplementation stuff that they kind of miss the greater picture of the person’s health.
That’s kind of a weird answer, but all I’m saying is that this program is a recommendation for how to do a functional medicine practice, but you need to take what is appropriate for you, depending on your education, depending on your licensure, depending on the state that you live in, depending what you’re even interested in, because if you don’t care to do the level of testing that you’re getting taught in this course, that’s totally fine. You don’t have to. Niching and really picking a couple of specific health topics that you’re super-interested in and you feel like you’re really good at helping people on is actually a much more profitable business strategy than trying to be a jack of all trades that can handle anything, focuses on everything, but you don’t really get the opportunity to really specialize. Then you may end up finding that you don’t really care about other topics, that you’re getting a lot of patients that come in and you’re like, “I don’t really want to work on that type of health condition.” Or like I said, maybe you’re doing things that you don’t feel like are in your scope and you’re a little concerned about licensure issues. Use what’s appropriate in this course. Don’t feel like you have to do everything from A to Z exactly how Chris recommends because it may not actually even be legal for you to do it. You have to be really careful and make sure you’re not just trying to do everything even if it’s not something you’re interested in or something you’re allowed to do.
Sorry that got a little ranty, but I’ve actually had this problem myself. You want to pick a couple of topics to focus on, but when I’ve been working for Chris for the last four years, it makes me feel like I need to be able to help everyone, and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m like, I don’t want to help everyone. I don’t want to do every single topic that Chris covers on his website. You have to really be very aware of what your skills are. You have to be aware of what your passions are. If you don’t like working with a certain type of client, then you shouldn’t be doing it just because you feel like, “Oh, well, that’s what Chris Kresser does.” Again, I’ve been there, and it’s taken me a long time to figure that out and make sure that I’m not just doing things because that’s what Chris does. It’s really easy, because you see how successful he is, to feel like you need to do that, but you definitely don’t. You can be very specific about what you want to do and what kind of focus you have for your clients.